By Channing Banks, Food Finances Specialist for Partners for Active Living My year at Partners for Active Living as an AmeriCorps Vista was full of fun, hard work, and lasting relationships. I participated in health fairs, fitness activities, career development courses, PAL community service projects, and group projects with my fellow Vistas. I gave partners the tools to teach people in poverty how to eat healthy on a budget, break barriers to healthy food access, and increase housing accessibility. It… Read More »

By Briana Bateman, Americorp VISTA for Partners for Active Living Spartanburg is growing and continuing to expand in many directions. We have excellent restaurants, local stores, a new hotel coming soon as well as the Hub Bub’s Sparkle City mini put course. Spartanburg is continuing to make bold changes to help better its people and the community in which we live. As the first city in South Carolina to earn a bicycle friendly designation from the League of American Bicyclists,… Read More »

“All of these developments are transformative, from bringing back communities to fanning the flames of a downtown boom. And all of them have, as a centerpiece of their plans, walkability and bike-ability.”… Read More »

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By Ned Barrett, Trails Coordinator for Partners for Active Living

We have all followed the news of the most significant current developments in Spartanburg, that is the Northside, Drayton Mills and the AC Marriott Hotel downtown. All of these developments are transformative, from bringing back communities to fanning the flames of a downtown boom. And all of them have, as a centerpiece of their plans, walkability and bike-ability.

The announcement of the AC Marriott hotel by OTO Development and Johnson Development focused on the importance of a walkable downtown. The Herald-Journal quoted Johnson Development president Geordy Johnson describing the ideal downtown as “vibrant, walkable, livable, entrepreneurial, fun and economically diverse.” The building is designed with the pedestrian in mind, close to the street and with features that reduce the feeling of height in the building.

The new Drayton Mills development features trails as the first completed part of the project, central to the marketing of the apartments and of the entire development of the Drayton Mill village. Master plans for the community show the trails centering a park from which street grids and home lots will be developed.

Tara Sherbert of TMS Development, the developer of the apartments at the mill, said, “The walking trails are an exciting feature that complements our live work play vision for Drayton. Their rolling paths that hug the stream, ponds and waterfall areas are a perfect complement to our 60 foot lap pool, two story tall state-of-the-art fitness facility and other amenities.”

On the Northside, an early initiative focused on the intersection at the entrance to Chapel Street Park. Squaring off a corner and adding crosswalks slowed traffic significantly and made walking to the park much safer. The daylighting of the Butterfly Creek and the park that will surround it has also been a centerpiece of the development, encouraging more activity and providing more places to be active, or to just sit and watch the world go by.

Will Rothschild, Communications director for the City of Spartanburg, says walking and biking will “incredibly important for the Northside for providing greater access to transportation options and recreation options for a neighborhood that has long suffered from its relative isolation. As we seek to build a new Northside where current residents will be better connected and have greater opportunities and future residents will choose to reside, such amenities are not a choice. They are absolutely essential to building a true community of choice.”

To learn more about Partners for Active Living, visit www.active-living.org